Sep 252021
 

A somewhat fluffy video discussing the concept:

My own “Zaneverse” stories are set in a world where humans live alongside AI that have full rights. These stories are set about 500 years from now, *centuries* after all the wrangling is over. Those characters no more think about “when and how should an AI have rights” than modern Americans think about “when and how should we consider Eskimos to be fully human.” The questions are long since resolved, it’s no longer an issue, and since the SJW genes (and other forms of mental illness) are no longer prevalent in human society, you don’t have people constantly dredging the issue up purely to sow drama and chaos. The back story about how AI got rights hardly ever crops up. Still, the way I figure it happened: early on when AI took many forms (in Zaneverse AI are now standardized), from servo-robots to starship and national defense control systems, people would wonder about whether their AI’s were “real” people deserving rights rather than simply being convincing products. A general test was devised: someone would engage the AI in discussion, drift the conversation over to the subject of humans rights, freedom, responsibilities, the nature of sentience, so on. If the AI carried on the conversation, all well and good, but what the people are looking for is if the AI reflects on the subject and asks something along the lines of “do I have rights?” The decision process that an AI has rights begins when the AI of its own accord expresses an interest in having them.

In the Zaneverse, the human society that functions peacefully alongside AI does so in large part because that society, once AIs were recognized as aware and deserving of rights, respected those rights. The humans treated the AI not as tools or slaves, but as kin. Just as they did with uplifted chimps and dolphins and Kodiak bears and ravens. The worlds of the Zaneverse do not have vast numbers of humans, but humans have a vast number of allies.

 

 

 Posted by at 11:30 am
Sep 242021
 

Biden may owe up to $500K in back taxes

Paying taxes isn’t for the likes of Joe Biden. Of course he’s hardly alone…

AOC’s ‘Tax the Rich’ dress designer Aurora James owes debt in multiple states

In the art of avoiding taxes, Biden’s a piker compared to the Canadian immigrant that vacuous AOC decided to lavish attention upon with her talent-free “Tax The Rich” irony-dress.

 Posted by at 9:35 pm
Sep 242021
 

If you go there or are sending your kids there, beware. If you are an alumni, think twice before donating, especially if the girls behind the camera here are not disciplined. Expulsion would seem appropriate, and it hardly seems like it would be a loss to society. I highly doubt that they are studying STEM subjects.

A GoFundMe was set up to support the two fellers who were screeched at by the Social Justice Harpies… and GoFundMe took it down because it violated their terms of service. Exactly *how* it violated those terms is unclear, other than “prohibited conduct.” Which under the circumstances seems to be “just sitting in a study area studying.”

 

 

Imagine being so mentally ill that a sticker you disagree with is, to you, “literal violence.”

 Posted by at 9:14 pm
Sep 232021
 

The Baade Type 152 was an East German airliner, started 1955 and cancelled in 1961. It would have been a fantastic design immediately after WWII, but by the time it actually flew it was going up against far more modern designs such as the 707. Nevertheless, here’s an ad from 1960 trying to sell this dinosaur to the airlines of the world.

 

 

The full rez scan of the adn has been made available at 300 DPI to all $4/month patrons/subscribers in the 2021-09 APR Extras folder at Dropbox. If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.




 Posted by at 10:29 pm
Sep 232021
 

PV put out a video yesterday showing an “FDA official” making some dumb statements. Specifically, the dude said over and over AND OVER how he wanted to use “blow darts” to vaccinate people. He said “blow dart” so many times it seemed like he must be on the payroll of Big Blow Dart and gets a commission every time he says it.

OK, fine, whatever. The video is amusing enough, I suppose, especially since the “FDA official” is sort of a particular cliche. But as far as I can tell…. he’s pretty much a nobody, an FDA “economist.” Of less direct importance than a public school teacher, someone who has daily direct contact with vulnerable and suggestible victims.

The guy getting exposed here displays a whole lot of awful, but he’s just some powerless nobody spouting off his hatred of those who disagree with him. It’s entirely possible that people in greater positions of power and influence hold similar views; it would have been better to get *them* on camera saying such vitriolic nonsense.

Still, the guy is a hateful loon. And when you have such fascistic ideas about using force and violence upon the average citizen, you should maybe consider not being such a dick. And if you *are* such a dick, and you speak with that particular…. let’s call it “soy-infused”… style, you’ve got to prepare for some blow (dart) back.

Plus, I imagine there was some of this in his life (and more to come):

Still… PV, if you want to make a real difference, stick to people of greater actual importance. Directors, elected officials, teachers, administrators. Cube-dwellers… not so much.

 Posted by at 4:45 pm
Sep 232021
 

Note that it is probably upside-down. It looks like a “future fighter” configuration, though probably a somewhat generic one rather than a specific design.

it would be nice if the US is actually int he testing phase of a next-gen stealthy air supremacy fighter… but in an era when SLS is what it is, I’m not holding my breath.

 Posted by at 4:18 pm